DJ Spen

DJ Spen

Sean Spencer (born October 13, 1968), better known by his stage name DJ Spen or Spen, is an American DJ, record producer, and record executive. He got his start, at the age of 13, as a local DJ in Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1980s, making mix tapes for local radio shows and playing parties. In 1983, Spencer, (along with Kevin Liles, Rodney "Kool Rod" Holloman, Darryl "Junie Jams" Mims, and Wayne Mallory) started a hip hop group called the Numarx in the basement of his parents' Baltimore row house. With Kool Rod and Junie Jams as the MCs, the group performed around Baltimore and the surrounding areas and opened for acts such as LL Cool J and Run-DMC. Later Spencer, Liles, and Holloman (along with Bill Pettaway and Ky Adeyemo) wrote Girl You Know It's True, which became a popular hit in German nightclubs and was eventually heard by Milli Vanilli producer Frank Farian. Spen also worked for several Baltimore area radio stations including V-103, WERQ-FM "92Q", WKYS-FM, and WWIN-FM "Majic 95.9" (where he started the popular Flashback Saturday Night Dance Party). He eventually became the Mix Show Director at V-103. In 1989, Spen moved away from hip hop and joined the powerhouse dance music production team The Basement Boys who remixed or produced artists such as Paula Abdul, Michael Jackson, Crystal Waters, and Ultra Nate. Karizma later joined the group and was DJ Spen's production partner. The two often produced under the alias "Deepah Ones" and Karizma became a mix show DJ during Spen’s tenure as Mix Show Director on V-103. In 1998 DJ Spen stopped working on radio to fully devote his time to production and DJ work. He continued to work with the Basement Boys for several years before starting a business venture called Code Red Recordings, with partner Gary Deane Ahrens. Code Red eventually snagged a distribution deal with the popular house music giant, Defected Records based in the UK. In 2011, Spen ventured out on his own to start the house music label Quantize Recordings, where he serves as President/CEO. Thomas "Thommy" Davis (original member of The Basement Boys and co-producer on the Grammy Award winning song Gypsy Woman starring vocalist Crystal Waters) serves as Vice President of A&R. DJ Spen continues to play internationally and has performed at some of the most sought after venues and locales around the world including Ministry of Sound; Coachella; Southport Weekender UK; SunceBeat Festival Croatia; and Ibiza. He and his former studio production partner Karizma often perform DJ sets together, wowing crowds with their back and forth routines that include broken beats, loops, and tricks using drum machines and up to 7 digital turntables. In the summer of 2018, DJ Spen and Italian producer Michele Chiavarini scored a number 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart with their remix of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff.

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